AI in Medicine PhD Track

Overview

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our lives. In the process, it also promises to transform medicine. With the increasing growth in medical knowledge and new opportunities to prevent or treat diseases, doctors are being driven to ever-narrower and siloed specialization. Concurrently, the increasing costs of healthcare, scarcity of resources (including primary care doctors and challenges to providing equal access to quality care are placing severe strains on healthcare systems throughout the world. These two trends make medicine a discipline ripe for advancement through the integration of AI into every aspect of practice and research. By harnessing its power, researchers, clinicians, and patients can analyze vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and make data-driven decisions with unprecedented speed and accuracy. However, addressing the unique complexity of healthcare and the high stakes involved requires overcoming substantial technical, computational, and societal obstacles.

The AI in Medicine PhD Track, administered by the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) at Harvard Medical School, is designed to address these challenges by preparing the next generation of leaders at the intersection of artificial intelligence and medicine. The program’s mission is to train exceptional computational students, harnessing large-scale biomedical data and cutting-edge AI methods to create new technologies and clinically impactful research that transform medicine worldwide, increasing both the quality and equity of health outcomes.

This groundbreaking training program transcends traditional boundaries between fields such as statistics, computer science, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and clinical medicine, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Students will acquire the skills to build tools and infrastructure that improve individual and population health, addressing the needs of patients, providers, and clinical care systems.

In partnership with the Boston area’s renowned hospitals, trainees will enrich their applied understanding of the challenges and opportunities for AI in the healthcare ecosystem by engaging in clinical shadowing during their first year.

For more information about the AIM program, please visit our main website.

Apply

The AI in Medicine PhD track is part of the Biomedical Informatics (BMI) PhD program in the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard Medical School. The doctoral degree is conferred by the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS).

You can find more information on the application process and a link to the application on the AIM apply page. Applications are due December 1st.

Prospective applicants: Please do not contact AIM faculty. Please read all the information found on our main program website and if you still have questions email AIM@hms.harvard.edu. Thank you.